An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is an interface circuit between the analog domain and the digital domain which is used for converting an analog signal to a corresponding digital representation. ADCs are used in many types of applications, such as but not limited to audio applications, video applications, measurement applications, and radio applications, wherein such conversion between analog and digital representation is required.
Many applications set relatively hard requirements on linearity and resolution of the ADC, which may be hard to meet, at least without resulting in undesirably large circuit area and/or power consumption.